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11. The Median Is the Message: A Good-Enough Measure of Material Well-Being and Shared Development Progress

Author:
Nancy Birdsall and Christian J. Meyer
Publication Date:
01-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
We argue that survey-based median household consumption expenditure (or income) per capita be incorporated into standard development indicators, as a simple, robust, and durable indicator of typical individual material well-being in a country. Using household survey data available for low- and middle-income countries from the World Bank's PovcalNet tool, we show that as a measure of income-related well-being, it is far superior to the commonly used GDP per capita as well as survey-based measures at the mean. We also argue that survey-based median measures are "distributionaware", i.e. when used as the denominator of various widely available indicators such as mean consumption expenditure per capita they provide a "good-enough" indicator of consumption (or income) inequality. Finally, as a post-2015 indicator of progress at the country-level in promoting shared development and reducing inequality, we propose that the rate of increase in median consumption per capita after taxes and transfers exceed the rate of increase in average consumption in the same period.
Topic:
Development, Diplomacy, Poverty, and World Bank
Political Geography:
United Nations

12. What Drives Deforestation and What Stops It? A Meta-Analysis of Spatially Explicit Econometric Studies

Author:
Jonah Busch and Kalifi Ferretti-Gallon
Publication Date:
04-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
We have constructed a comprehensive database of 117 spatially explicit econometric studies of deforestation published in peer-reviewed academic journals from 1996-2013. We present a metaanalysis of what drives deforestation and what stops it, based on the signs and significance of 5909 coefficients in 554 multivariate analyses. We find that forests are more likely to be cleared where economic returns to agriculture and pasture are higher, either due to more favorable climatological and topographic conditions, or due to lower costs of clearing forest and transporting products to market. Timber activity, land tenure security, and community demographics do not show a consistent association with either higher or lower deforestation. Population is consistently associated with greater deforestation, and poverty is consistently associated with lower deforestation, but in both cases endogeneity makes a causal link difficult to infer. Promising approaches for stopping deforestation include reducing the intrusion of road networks into remote forested areas; targeting protected areas to regions where forests face higher threat; tying rural income support to the maintenance of forest resources through payments for ecosystem services; and insulating the forest frontier from the price effects of demand for agricultural commodities.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Environment, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
United Nations

13. Development: Advancement through International Organizations

Author:
Rohinton Medhora and David Malone
Publication Date:
05-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
The familiar world of international organizations principally devoted to development has been upended by two phenomena. First is the emergence of sustained economic success in the developing world (mostly in Asia, but increasingly also in Africa and, in a less spectacular way, Latin America) amid compelling, continuing need among the world's poor. Second, the slow-moving, serious financial and economic crisis of the industrialized world since 2008 has reordered priorities in many of their capitals toward domestic spending and away from costly international projects.
Topic:
Development, Economics, International Cooperation, International Organization, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Africa, Asia, United Nations, and Latin America

14. Ensuring Stable and Peaceful Societies: Memo to H.E. John W. Ashe, President of the General Assembly

Author:
David Steven
Publication Date:
04-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center on International Cooperation
Abstract:
You asked me, as an independent expert, to contribute to the General Assembly Thematic Debate on 'Ensuring Stable and Peaceful Societies.' Since receiving your request, I have completed a review of the deliberations of the Open Working Group on this issue and of other relevant contributions to the post-2015 development agenda. I have also consulted informally with representatives of member states, UN agencies, and other stakeholders. While I have found widespread support for the need to foster peaceful, non-violent, and inclusive societies, there is some disagreement as to how this objective can be achieved within the context of the post-2015 development agenda. Rather than repeat material contained in existing reports on stable and peaceful societies, I thought it would be more useful to offer some reflections on the sources of agreement between member states, and the potential to move towards consensus in areas where they disagree. This will, I hope, help all those participating in the thematic debate respond to your challenge to identify concrete ways in which peace and stability can underpin an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable future.
Topic:
Development, Peacekeeping, and Border Control
Political Geography:
United Nations

15. The Laboratory of Development: The Impact of Social Policies on Children in Latin America and the Caribbean

Author:
David Steven and Alejandra Kubitschek Bujones
Publication Date:
05-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center on International Cooperation
Abstract:
In October 2013, Ambassadors from the Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries in the United Nations (GRULAC), their key negotiators from respective capitals, civil society representatives, and UN System agencies from the region held a retreat on the Post-2015 Agenda.
Topic:
Development and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
United Nations, Latin America, Caribbean, and North America

16. The African Union and the Post-2015 Development Agenda

Author:
Barry Carin
Publication Date:
07-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
African countries are currently engaged at the United Nations (UN) to determine the post-2015 framework to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The post-2015 goals matter because they will guide the priorities of UN agencies, the multilateral development banks, bilateral development assistance and civil society organizations. It is in Africa's interests to ensure the post-2015 framework is congruent with African priorities. African Union negotiators must take a strategic approach in the current process to select the post-2015 development goals.
Topic:
Development, Governance, and Reform
Political Geography:
Africa and United Nations

17. Education in Emergencies: The Case of the Dadaab Refugee Camps

Author:
Hayley Mackinnon
Publication Date:
07-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Between 1991 and 2009, more than 2.5 million Somali citizens fled their homeland to Ethiopia, Djibouti and, most notably, Kenya, following the collapse of the Somalian government of Siad Barre. This led to violent clashes between various factional clan groups, and fighting to control land and resources ensued. This resulted in the displacement, starvation and slaughter of thousands of civilians, leading to a crisis that prompted international intervention during the 1990s.
Topic:
Development and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
Africa, United Nations, and Ethiopia

18. Costing a Data Revolution

Author:
Gabriel Demombynes and Justin Sandefur
Publication Date:
10-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
The lack of reliable development statistics for many poor countries has led the U.N. to call for a “data revolution” (United Nations, 2013). One fairly narrow but widespread interpretation of this revolution is for international aid donors to fund a coordinated wave of household surveys across the developing world, tracking progress on a new round of post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals. We use data from the International Household Survey Network (IHSN) to show (i) the supply of household surveys has accelerated dramatically over the past 30 years and that (ii) demand for survey data appears to be higher in democracies and more aid-dependent countries. We also show that given existing international survey programs, the cost to international aid donors of filling remaining survey gaps is manageable--on the order of $300 million per year. We argue that any aid-financed expansion of household surveys should be complemented with (a) increased access to data through open data protocols, and (b) simultaneous support for the broader statistical system, including routine administrative data systems.
Topic:
Development, Human Welfare, and Infrastructure
Political Geography:
Asia and United Nations

19. Peacekeeping Reimbursements-Key Topics for the Next COE Working Group

Author:
Bianca Selway
Publication Date:
01-2013
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
With UN peacekeeping operating in more complex environments and taking on new tasks, peacekeepers need appropriate equipment to carry out their mandates. A central aspect to equipping peacekeepers is ensuring that member states are appropriately reimbursed for their contributions under a equipment reimbursement system, called the Contingent-Owned Equipment System(COE). Every three years the United Nations conducts a meeting to negotiate the terms and conditions of the financial reimbursements paid to member states for the equipment they provide to UN peacekeeping operations. Preparations and briefings to member states are already underway in New York for the next COE Working Group meeting, to be held January 20-31, 2014. With 98,311 military and police deployed with their related equipment in seventeen missions around the world, the financial implications of these tri-annual discussions can be significant. In MONUSCO alone, the mission's annual budget for reimbursements to troop-contributing and police-contributing countries for major equipment and self-sustainment in the fiscal years 2008/09, 2009/10, and 2010/11 were $144million, $160million, and$180million, respectively.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Security, Development, Armed Struggle, and Fragile/Failed State
Political Geography:
United Nations

20. The Post-2015 Agenda and the EU: Faltering in the Global Development Partnership?

Author:
Marikki Stocchetti
Publication Date:
12-2013
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
The era of the Millennium Development Goals and the Millennium Declaration expires in September 2015. As the largest donor of international development aid and trader with the developing countries, the EU has a key interest in the future outcome. It has also made binding commitments to support developing countries' own efforts to fulfil the present goals, as well as to act as a global partner. In the ongoing consultation process, the UN is pushing ahead with an enabling, universal development paradigm with an enhanced development partnership that goes well beyond traditional development assistance. Whereas the EU and the UN share common ground on human rights, governance and security issues, their preliminary proposals differ significantly on the question of a global partnership. The European Commission has tabled a proposal for the Union that is still based on a very conventional donor-recipient approach, which the UN seeks to reject. The European Commission proposal is problematic because it fails to present a comprehensive analysis of the current Millennium Development Goal on a global partnership, especially regarding trade and debt issues. Instead, it focuses on developing countries' domestic policies. The EU still has time to correct this as the process unfolds. Should it fail to do so, it is highly unlikely that other donors will take up the UN proposal and push it through in the inter-governmental negotiations.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Human Rights, Foreign Aid, and Governance
Political Geography:
Europe and United Nations